Beyond The Blue Horizon
by SourSuite
Summary: This story has Jane and Lisbon's love story starting at the end of season three finale and moving forward, showing how the episodes would have been different if Jisbon were already a couple.
1. Straight From The Heart

**So I wanted to write a story as if Jane and Lisbon's love story started earlier in the show. I decided to start at the season three finale, Strawberries and Cream and move forward. The story will start out more matching the episodes at first, but as it progressives will be more AU. I have added scenes I wished happened and plus changed some scenes. I hope you like it.**

 **I do not own The Mentalist. This story takes ideas from the episode Strawberries and Cream, which was written by Ashley Gable and Bruno Heller. Give them all of the props for being awesome.**

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 **Straight From The Heart**

Leaving the abandoned school, the drive back to the CBI from the seemed like the longest car ride of both Jane and Lisbon's life, knowing that any moment the bomb could explode and take their lives. Lisbon had started holding her cross necklace and praying almost immediately after she got in the car. This may have been the most scared she had ever been in her life because she felt so helpless. All of her police training could not prepare her for this moment and she felt like she had no control. Normally, Jane would have made some sort of smart ass comment about her praying to what he thought was a make believe God, but he knew that if this helped Lisbon remain calm and helped her have a little more hope, he certainly did not want to stop her. He needed her not to freak out at the moment. He became greatly perturbed when the guy who had placed the bomb on her chest had made her stop praying because her whispering annoyed him. A million thoughts were rushing through Jane's mind trying to figure out how to get Lisbon out of this bad predicament.

Lisbon, always have been a devout Catholic, hoped to God that her prayers would be answered and both Jane and her would make it out of this situation alive. In one way she was happy Jane had arrived so that she was not alone in this frightening moment, but another way she hated that he was now in danger because of her. She really had just wanted to tell him to leave, but she knew there was no way the bad guy would let him leave go once he realized he was there because he might call for backup and foil his plans.

Lisbon was quickly taken from her thoughts when Jane all of a sudden turned the car, heading in the wrong direction of the CBI. She didn't know what to think of the change. She could tell that he had come up with some sort of an idea, but she couldn't tell if he had actually figured out what was going on or if he just had some harebrained scheme. Usually listening to his crazy theories annoyed her, but at this moment she wished she knew exactly what he was thinking. She had no idea how he seemed to remain so calm in this horrible moment.

As Jane pulled into the same gas station where the previous bomb had gone off earlier, Lisbon looked at him which such confusion on her face. Jane quickly threw the car into park, flung open his door, and jumped out. He swiftly made his way over to Lisbon's side of the car and opened her door for her. He kept mouthing to her, "it will be okay." He took her both of her hands in his and gently helped her out of the car, not knowing how sensitive the bomb strapped to her chest may be. He did not want to be the person responsible for triggering an explosion. They made their way into the building as fast as they thought was safe and once they arrived to where Jane believed the bad guy was currently located, he mouthed to Lisbon to play along, having her pretend to direct him to the correct location in the CBI. Jane was disappointed when he tried to open the door and discovered it was locked, but knew he had broken into more secure locks before.

It took Jane longer to pick the lock than he had anticipated so he decided to make some conversation with Lisbon so the bad guy did not hear him messing with the door.

"Lisbon…" Jane started.

"Yeah?" Lisbon asked.

"Listen, uh, if this doesn't turn out well, um, I just...well, there's been something that I've been wanting to tell you for a long time and the moment has presented itself," Jane said. Lisbon was totally taken aback by Jane's statement. Her heart started pounding even harder than it had been before, feeling like it was about to explode from her chest at any moment. She had no idea whether he was speaking from his heart since he was also terrified that they may die together or if this was just a part of a plan.

"Are you sure this is really the best time?" Lisbon asked.

"Well, if not know...when?" Jane asked.

Lisbon was actually a little disappointed when Jane was able to get the door unlocked pretty quickly after he started to speak because she really wanted to see where this conversation was heading, but she knew they had to get the bomb disarmed first. Hopefully this conversation could resume later once they were back in a safe location.

Jane motioned for Lisbon to kick down the door. After she busted it down and her gun was held straight at the bad guy, she pleaded for Jane leave. She knew at anytime this guy could make the bomb go off. But Jane being Jane, he refused to leave. It pissed her off a little that he was still refusing to follow her orders, even in such a dire situation. He was not needed there anymore and she didn't want to be responsible for him being hurt. Fortunately, the arguing between her and Jane was able to distract the guy long enough for Jane to get the detonator out of the guy's hand so that he no longer had the power to harm Lisbon. Lisbon was able to quickly get the bad guy on the ground and convince him to disarm the bomb. As the guy was disarming the bomb, Jane called for backup and they both waited for help to arrive.

Once LaRoche and took the bad guy into custody, Lisbon could not help but yell at Jane for not following her order.

"Hey, you are not off the hook," Lisbon said firmly to Jane.

"Off the hook?" Jane said. "Oh, come on. All's well that ends well."

"All is not well," Lisbon said grumpily.

"Oh, please," Jane said.

"Ah, don't give me a please," Lisbon said, sounding like a nagging wife. "You just disobeyed a direct order."

"Don't sulk," Jane said, turning to walk away.

"I gave you an order," Lisbon said, following Jane. "It is my job to keep you alive. When I give you an order, you follow it. That's the deal."

"And I wanted to leave," Jane started. "I wanted to leave desperately, but I would have looked like a complete coward. It was my ego, my sheer vanity, that kept me there…"

"That is not the point!" Lisbon said interrupting him. "The point is…" There bickering was interrupted by gunfire. LaRoche had to shoot the bad guy. This really freaked out Jane. Seeing death was something he would never be used to regardless of how long he worked at the CBI. It always brought up painful emotions, even when it was a bad guy that was being killed.

Officers had to take Jane and Lisbon's statements about the bomb and the shooting before they could leave, and once they were finished, the two of them got into Lisbon's SUV and headed back to the abandoned school to retrieve Jane's car. The first 10 minutes of the car ride was completely silent before Lisbon decided to speak.

"You okay?" Lisbon asked gently, having seen the fearful look that had been on Jane's face when the sound of the gunshot had filled the air.

"We could have died tonight," Jane said, looking straight out the windshield without blinking.

"But we didn't," Lisbon responded. "And if you had left when I had told you than you would have been in less danger."

"I'd never leave you alone in a situation like that," Jane said.

"Don't play the ego card again," Lisbon said rolling her eyes.

"I'm not," Jane responded, looking over at her. "You always rant on about how we are partners and need to trust each other. Leaving you alone wouldn't have been a very partner-y thing to do. There is no way you would've left me if the roles were reverse."

Lisbon knew he was absolutely right. "The difference is I am a cop, Jane," she said. "I am supposed to protect you from danger. You are only a consultant."

"So what you are saying is that if you weren't a cop and I had a bomb strapped to my chest I would be totally screwed?" Jane asked with a smirk.

"100% on your own," Lisbon said with a giant smile of her own.

"You are such a bad liar," Jane said. "You're too good of a person to do that. You wouldn't be able to live with yourself."

"Guess we will never know," Lisbon said, making Jane laugh.

"Seriously, though," Jane started, "how much do you need to clean your pants after having a bomb strapped to your chest?" This made both of them laugh.

"About as much as when I thought I was going to burn alive in that house with you when you got both of us kidnapped earlier this year," Lisbon said.

"First of all," Jane started, "I did not get you kidnapped. That is on you. Second of all, we seriously need to find less dangerous ways to hang out together. Kidnapping and bomb vests? Our lives are turning into a Die Hard movie."

Lisbon smiled. "Is that what you were talking about back at the gas station when you said you had been wanting to tell me for a really long time?" Lisbon asked, bringing up the conversation he had started when he was picking the lock. "That you are slowly turning into John McClane?"

"No," Jane said as he turned to look out the passenger window.

Lisbon sat quiet waiting to see what he was going to say next, but he remained quiet. "That is all you are going to say?" Lisbon asked. "No?"

"Nope," Jane finally said. "I also wanted to say that you should listen to me next time I say to bring back up when going to a dangerous area." Lisbon could tell he was trying to change the topic.

"Shut up," Lisbon responded, knowing there was no need to push him tonight.

She pulled up to the school and Jane got out of the car.

Jane opened the car door and got out. "I'm glad you are okay, "Jane said. "I really don't want to have to lose you and have to take the time to mold a new boss."

"I'm touched," Lisbon said with a small laugh, knowing Jane was joking. Jane shut the door and headed to his car. Lisbon made sure he got his car started and they each drove their separate ways.

That night, Jane got almost no sleep, tossing and turning while having bad dream after bad dream, thinking about what could have gone down that night. Not only could he have died, but he could have seen Lisbon die that night. She was the only person he really trusted now in his life and he didn't know what he would do if he lost her. He eventually gave up on trying to get a peaceful night's sleep, so he got up and turned his attention to trying to figure out why a guy would strap a bomb to a CBI agent's chest just to get a list of names.

The next morning, he headed down to Lisbon's office, swinging her office door open with no regard like he had done a million times before. He never cared if she was in a middle of a meeting with someone. This time he froze when opening the door, shocked to see Lisbon standing there in a light pink dress. He stared at her in almost utter disbelief. This was totally not what he was expecting to see. He didn't really mean to be so plainly obvious in his staring, but the sight of her took his breath away.

"Geez, Jane!" Lisbon yelled. "Do you mind knocking?" She felt so uncomfortable. A tomboy her whole life, pink and dresses were not the most common terms people could use when describing her wardrobe. She was also a little embarrassed by how Jane was staring at her, looking at her from head to toe.

"Whoa..." Jane said. "Oh, my."

"Van Pelt must die," Lisbon said.

"No, no, no, no," Jane said, shaking his head. "You look good. This is...beautiful, like a princess. An angry little princess. Someone stole your tiara."

"She caught me by surprise when she asked me," Lisbon said, ignoring Jane's comments. "Otherwise, I'd never agree to be bridesmaid. And why would she even ask me to do something like this? She knows I hate this crap!"

"I told her to ask you," Jane stated. "I told her you were secretly dying to be a bridesmaid."

"Really?" Lisbon asked annoyed. "Why would you do that?"

"Oh, for the fun of it," Jane said. "And because of course deep down you secretly do want to be a bridesmaid. Go ahead. Confess."

As Cho came in to speak to Lisbon, Jane couldn't take his eyes of her. Everything about her looked good in that dress, from how it draped over her body, to how her arms looked, her hair, and even how her necklace seemed to match the dress perfectly. He was going to have to praise Grace for her taste in dresses.

Lost in his thoughts, he all of a sudden he felt Lisbon push him hard in the chest. It made him come out of his daze and he looked around, realizing that not only was Cho no longer speaking, but he had left the room entirely.

"I need to change so I can go the crime scene," Lisbon stated.

"That's fine," Jane said. "Who's stopping you?"

"Do you really think I am going to change in front of you?" Lisbon asked.

"We are partners," Jane said with a smile.

"Get out," Lisbon said with a small laugh.

"Looks good," Jane said as he went to leave. He stopped and turned around to look at her again. "Very feminine."

The whole situation had been very odd for Lisbon. This was really the first time she had seen Jane looking her over in that kind of way. A blush came to her face. Maybe she did like this dress after all.

Downstairs, Jane stood impatiently waiting next to Lisbon's car for her to come down so they could go to Max James' house. When he saw Lisbon coming through the parking garage, he knew the ribbing needed to continue.

"No dress?" Jane asked as Lisbon approached.

"Ha, ha," Lisbon said. "Get in damn car."

"I thought dressing up was supposed to put girls in a good mood," Jane said as he jumped in the passenger seat.

"Do I seem like that type of girl?" Lisbon said as she got in the car and started the engine.

"More like the _La Femme Nikita_ type," Jane said. "And there is definitely some hidden naughty Catholic school girl in their, too, who probably likes whips or something."

Lisbon reached over and smacked his arm.

"See?" Jane said. "You have hit me twice in less than 20 minutes. And I can tell you secretly like it."

"I hit you because you are annoying," Lisbon said.

"I saved your life yesterday and this is the thanks I get?" Jane asked with a fake hurt sound to his voice. "Bruises?"

"I thought you said you stayed because of your ego," Lisbon spat back. "Or was it really because you wanted to be hero?"

"I saved you because we are friends and I care about you," Jane said honestly. Lisbon looked at him, a little shocked about his honesty. She was waiting for some smart ass comment to come out of his mouth next, but it did not come.

"Did Patrick Jane just say something nice to me without a joke attached to it?" Lisbon asked with a fake suspicious look on her face.

"I must be coming down with the flu or something," Jane quipped back.

"It's nice to know that the flu is the only way you can care," Lisbon said.

"I always care," Jane said. "I'm just not good at expressing it. I will always be there for you Lisbon. I will annoy the hell out of you, but I will always have your back at the same time." Lisbon couldn't help but smile. She rarely saw the softer side of Jane, but she loved it when she did.

"I guess I'll have to take the good with the bad," Lisbon said.

"That is what my wife used to say," Jane said with a small laugh.

"She had to be one tough woman to live with you," Lisbon responded.

"She was," Jane said. "I think you two would have gotten along very well. You are both really caring people, but tough as hell. Your love of guns, though, makes you a lot scarier, though."

"And yet I can't seem to keep you in line," Lisbon said as they pulled up to the crime scene.

"I don't think I have annoyed you enough yet to the point I am worried you will actually shoot me," Jane said as they got out of the car and headed into the home.

"The night is young," Lisbon said with a smirk.

The both of them met up with Cho and looked around the crime scene. They weren't in the house very long before they realized the dead man before them had known Hightower and that the bombing must have to do something with Red John. Lisbon's heart dropped once this realization set in. Being smack dab in the middle of another Red John case was terrifying to her, not because she really feared Red John would hurt her, but rather because she knew at anytime Red John could get tired of the cat and mouse game with Jane and just decide to get rid of him.

Jane and Lisbon headed out of the home to let Sac PD handle the crime scene. Once outside, Lisbon tried to express her worry about the situation to Jane, but he was once again acting strangely calm.

"He could come after you, Jane," Lisbon pleaded with Jane.

"Why?" Jane asked. "I truly don't know where Hightower is right now."

"If I don't totally believe you, Red John probably doesn't either," Lisbon responded.

"If Red John wants me, he knows where to find me," Jane said. "I can't worry about that."

When Jane tried to walk away from her, Lisbon grabbed his arm.

"Where are you going?" Lisbon asked.

"Home," Jane responded.

"Let me put some detail on you for awhile," Lisbon said.

"He is after Hightower, not me," Jane repeated.

"You don't know that for certain," Lisbon pleaded. "Jane, you know how dangerous he is. You need to watch your back."

"Don't worry," Jane said, trying to sound reassuring.

"Don't worry?!" Lisbon said flabbergasted. "Red John was behind the reason I had a bomb strapped to my chest last night and you think I should not be worried that he may try to harm someone?"

"You're right," Jane said. "You should have detail around your house tonight."

"You are so stubborn," Lisbon said, clearly frustrated.

"He doesn't want me dead," Jane said. "He has had the opportunity to kill me before. Probably many times. It's no fun in his sick mind if I'm dead. But I do think you should have some detail on your house after what occurred yesterday. Lisbon, I do worry he will do something to you. He hurts the people I love knowing that it will hurt me and I don't want to see that happen again."

Lisbon stood there staring at Jane, taking in the words that had just spilled out of his mouth.

Jane saw the look on her face and realized what he had just said. "I'm...I'm going to go home," Jane said. "Be careful tonight. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Lisbon said, watching Jane as he walked away.

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 **Reviews are welcome. Let me know what you like, don't like, or provide suggestions. Just don't be a jerk about it. I'm just writing for fun.**


	2. Still On Your Side

**Thank you for all of the reviews. You all were very kind and gave me good motivation to write more. I will give you a heads up it will usually take 5 days or so in between posts because I don't like posting something until I am satisfied with what I wrote.**

 **I do not own The Mentalist. This story takes ideas from the episode Strawberries and Cream, which was written by Ashley Gable and Bruno Heller.**

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Walking into his hotel room, Jane sat down on his bed, a million thoughts running through his head. He had seen the shocked look in Lisbon's eyes when he had accidentally mentioned his feelings for her. Hell, he kind of shocked himself by the revelation. He knew he had a fondness for Lisbon, but he hadn't truly admitted it to himself that he may actually love her. Having a case involving Red John certainly did not help his state of mind at the moment. For once he wished he could just be a normal person and have a normal life. He kind of wished he could be more honest with Lisbon, but he worried that Red John would go after her if he did.

After he had gotten up to turn off the water in the bathroom sink that he had heard leaking, his heart dropped when he heard the sound of the floor creaking, making him aware of someone's presence in his room. He immediately thought that Lisbon had been right about Red John finally coming after him. Discovering that it was just Hightower made him feel a little better, even though the gun she was pointing directly at him didn't really put him that much at ease. He knew they needed to have a long discussion about the recent events.

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Meanwhile, after leaving the crime scene, Lisbon headed back to her office. She knew there was no way she was going to get any sleep that night so she figured she might as well work. Time ticked by so slowly as she sat at her desk, looking occasionally at her phone. An internal debate was going in her mind. She thought about calling Jane, but she didn't really know what to say. Does she admit she also has feelings for him? What if she did say that and it scared him away? Her thoughts went back and forth, weighing the pros and cons. She finally decided she should give him some space. She could tell by the look on his face that he hadn't intended to reveal his feelings to her. Also, whenever the topic of Red John was on the front burner, it always had Jane acting a little crazy so having a deep conversation with her was probably the last thing on his mind.

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The next day Jane hurried into the office and rounded up the team to discuss the Hightower scenario. He had stayed up all night figuring out exactly what needed to be done. Lisbon breathed a huge sigh of relief when he walked in. She had been worrying all night about his safety. The team headed to O'Malley's to discuss a plan to get the list of potential Red John suspects from LaRoche to help prove that Hightower was innocent.

After Jane had finished describing the plan to the team, he waited to see how the team would respond. He could tell they were all a little weary. Lisbon was the first to speak up.

"I am going to do this," Lisbon said, addressing the team. "But if any of you do not want to take part, that is totally okay." Jane was really happy that she was still on his side and was willing to go along with his plan. He was really beginning to understand what a partnership was really all about.

"I'm in," Cho said.

"Yep," Rigsby responded.

"Me, too," Grace said.

The team decided to meet up again after Jane attempted to get the list from LaRoche. They knew there was nothing they could really do with their plan unless they had the list.

Jane was able to quickly trick LaRoche into providing him the suspects and he went and met with the team again to discuss. Everyone was a little shocked about the suspects: Brenda Shettrick, Osvaldo Ardiles, Gale Bertram, and Craig O'Laughlin. Jane told the guys they were in charge of telling Ardiles and O'Laughlin about Hightower's location and Lisbon would handle telling Brenda and Bertram. The team left to get the plan in motion, leaving Jane and Lisbon sitting there in the park.

"Why do I have to be the one to tell Bertram?" Lisbon asked Jane.

"He will believe you," Jane said. "If I tell him, he will think we are pulling something. Which we are so he would be correct. I just can't afford to tip him off if he is the accomplice. It could put all of us in danger. You are the team lead so it makes the most sense for you to talk to him."

"Do you really think that the director of the CBI could be involved with Red John?" Lisbon asked.

"It is hard to trust anyone nowadays," Jane said. "Red John has many friends, including in law enforcement. We have to be very careful."

"Do you trust me?" Lisbon asked.

"Yes," Jane said quickly. "Never doubt that. Lisbon, I see the worry in your eyes when you talk about Red John coming after me. That hurt is real. That can't be faked. If you were working for Red John, you wouldn't care what happens to me. And you know, I always say you are a bad liar. So either I am right and you are a horrible liar or you are the greatest liar in the whole world."

"I thought you held that title," Lisbon said with a smile.

"I thought so, too, but you are starting to catch on to me," Jane said.

"Maybe you are actually becoming more of an honest person," Lisbon said.

"That doesn't sound right," Jane said. "It's more likely that I'm corrupting you."

"You know it is not a bad thing to be a good person," Lisbon said. "You don't need to fight it."

"Listen, I know you want me to be a better person," Jane said. "I just don't know if that can happen."

"It has already happened," Lisbon said as she reached over and squeezed his hand. "You don't even realize how much you have changed since when we first started working together. You are a different person. Except for the fact that you still like fighting with me tooth and nail."

"That's fun," Jane said, which made the both of the laugh a little. They sat there silent for a few moments, Jane's hand still in Lisbon. Jane was finally the one to speak again.

"We might actually catch Red John," Jane said quietly, like he couldn't believe his own words. "This might actually all be over soon."

Lisbon went to respond, but her phone rang. It was Bertram calling to get an update on the case. "I guess I should take this," she said.

"We really should get going," Jane responded. "Time to get the plan in motion."

The plan had gone almost perfectly until the person that was hired to kill Hightower ended up jumping out of the hotel window before the team had a chance to talk to her. At least they were able to figure out that Bertram was the person working with Red John.

Jane and Lisbon quickly headed out of the room together to start creating a plan to catch Bertram. Jane was starting to get real antsy and it worried Lisbon.

"You are getting that crazy look in your eyes," Lisbon said as they got into her car to head back to the CBI. "I need you to calm down. If you start getting frantic, you might end up doing something stupid."

"We are so close, Lisbon," Jane said. "We almost have him."

"I am hoping you are right, Jane," Lisbon said. " You just got to be careful you are not getting your hopes up. The let down would be so hard on you."

"I have to have my hopes up," Jane said. "I want this to be over so badly. If we get him, I just feel like a can finally start over."

"What do you mean?" Lisbon asked.

"I can stop hating on myself all of the time for what happened to my family," Jane said truthfully. "I can try to get past the blame. I maybe can finally move on and start a new life."

"Move on how?" Lisbon asked nervously.

"I can do things that I've been wanting to do, but without having to worry what Red John might do to put an end to my happiness," Jane said. "I can live like a normal person."

"Are you going to still work with the CBI?" Lisbon asked.

"I'll stay if you want me there," Jane said.

"I want you there," Lisbon said quickly.

"After this is all over, we should really sit down and talk," Jane said.

"About what?" Lisbon asked.

"The future," Jane said. "What our plans are." Lisbon's heart was beating so hard she swore Jane was going to be able to hear it.

"I'd really like that," Lisbon said.

"First things first, though," Jane said. "We need to get Bertram to get us to Red John."

That night Jane and Lisbon sat in her office running through the plan to trap Red John. After the plan was worked out, Jane ended up falling asleep on the couch in her office. She watched him for awhile as he slept. He actually looked kind of innocent when he slumbered. She was hoping he could finally find some peace.

The next day Lisbon headed to the ranch to keep an eye on Hightower as the team set up the trap.

Jane was thinking his plan to trick Bertram was so smart, until he finally realized he had the wrong man. The killer was not hired by Bertram, but rather by O'Laughlin, who he knew was heading with Grace to the ranch. He quickly told Cho and Rigsby and he tried to get Lisbon on the phone.

"Answer your damn phone," Jane said as the phone kept going to voicemail. Know he knew why she always complained when he never answered his phone.

Lisbon finally heard her phone ringing and answered it. "What's up?" Lisbon asked. She knew there was no way Bertram had already spilled the beans on Red John.

"Lisbon, listen to me," Jane said. "It's not Bertram. "It's O'Laughlin."

"Jane, I can't hear you," Lisbon said. "What?"

"O'Laughlin!" Jane said. "Red John's man is O'Laughlin." Lisbon finally understood and turned around to look dead into O'Laughlin's eyes. She tried to pull her gun, but he was able to shoot first.

"Lisbon!" Jane yelled after he heard a gunshot over his phone. After a few moments of silence, he then heard several more gunshots.

"Lisbon!" Jane yelled. "Lisbon! Lisbon!" He felt so helpless at the moment because he knew there was nothing he could do. He finally had a small sigh of relief when he heard her breathing into the phone until he quickly heard how her breathing was very labored.

"Lisbon?" He asked.

"O'Laughlin's dead," Lisbon said. "I'm wounded, but I'm okay."

"Are you going to be alright?" Jane asked, the worry very evident in his tone.

"I think I'm going to be alright," Lisbon said. Jane sat there breathing hard, knowing that she could have died. "I am going to check O'Laughlin's phone. See who he has been calling."

"I am going to right head over," Jane said as he started to get up from his chair.

"He called someone right before he came here," Lisbon said.

"Push redial," Jane responded. Lisbon did as Jane suggested.

Jane froze dead in his tracks when he realized Lisbon was calling someone sitting very near to him.

"I'll call you back," Jane said as he hung up the phone.

As Lisbon was being tended to by paramedics, Cho and Rigsby arrived to the ranch.

"You okay, boss?" Cho asked as they walked up to the stretched Lisbon was sitting on.

"I'll live," Lisbon said. "Did Jane come with you?" Cho and Rigsby looked at each other. "What?" Lisbon asked.

"We got a call from the local PD," Rigsby said. "Jane was arrested for shooting and killing a man."

Lisbon froze. "Red John?" She asked.

"We believe so," Cho said. "We'll get more details while you go get checked out at the hospital."

"Call me as soon as possible," Lisbon said. The paramedics took her away in the ambulance. She was a very upset because Cho and Rigsby were supposed to have stopped Jane from doing something dumb. She had insisted they be with him when he went to trick Bertram. She was hoping that he didn't just put himself into a mess in which he couldn't get himself out.

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 **As you can tell, from the episodes I will not focus on too much that is not Jane and Lisbon related. I'll mention it if I have to, but otherwise I am only going to talk about the scenes that are Jisbon related.**

 **Reviewed are welcome. They let me know if I suck or not.**


	3. Here Comes The Sun

**For some reason I had the hardest time writing this chapter. I rewrote parts of it many times. Part of this I blame on this site going down at night when I wanted to post. Gave me too much time to make me rethink things. Anyway, here is the next chapter.**

 **I do not own The Mentalist. This chapter takes ideas from the episode Scarlet Ribbons, which was written by Bruno Heller. He is the best.**

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After being taken to the hospital, Lisbon was immediately taken into surgery. She wished she could have found out more about Jane beforehand, but they wanted to get the surgery started right away and Cho and Rigsby were still stuck at the ranch answering dealing with the aftermath of O'Laughlin's shooting.

When she woke up from the surgery a few hours later, Cho was standing in her room. He told her that Jane was being charged with murder for killing an unarmed man and the local authorities did not believe this man could be Red John. She didn't know how she was ever going to get Jane out of this mess.

Meanwhile, Jane had been taken to the local police headquarters after the shooting. He had been relieved that Red John was finally dead, until the investigators told him that the man he killed was not Red John and didn't even have a gun on him at the time of the shooting. When they brought him to his jail cell, Jane kept playing the event over and over again in his mind. He knew he was not crazy and that man had a gun. He also knew that if that guy wasn't actually Red John, he was at least pretending to be him to mess with Jane and must have been sent by Red John. He needed to find out the truth, but he didn't even know where to begin.

A court appointed attorney had been assigned to Jane and had come to talk to him, but the guy kept wanting Jane to plead guilty so he would not get the death penalty. Jane refused to do it and decided to defend himself rather than put his faith in some hack of an attorney.

The next day when he went to his bail hearing, he decided to not fight the $1,000,000 bail. He needed time to think of his next move and if he was out in the streets the media and others would be hounding him and not giving him any space. He really needed to talk to Lisbon, but she was still in the hospital recovering and he did not want to interfere with her recovery so he figured he would just wait until she was released to speak with her.

Bertram had gone to visit Lisbon in the hospital after Jane's bond hearing to see how she was doing. She was shocked to learn that her whole team was suspended when they were just trying to find Red John. What shocked and hurt her even more was when Bertram told her to just forget about Jane. This is one thing that she refused to do. Against doctors wishes, Lisbon decided to check out of the hospital early. Jane needed someone on his side to help him. She headed home to change and then went straight to the jail to talk to Jane.

Jane was shocked to hear that he had a visitor. He assumed it was one of the guys going to yell at him for not asking for his bail to be lowered. When he walked in and saw it was Lisbon in the room, he was partly happy to see her, but also partly worried that she was out of the hospital so soon.

"So how was your week?" Jane asked. Lisbon laughed weakly. "You should be in the hospital. What are you doing here?"

"I'm okay," Lisbon said. "You on the other hand, you killed an unarmed man in front of 500 witnesses. You are not okay."

"He had a gun," Jane said defensively. "Someone must have taken it and switched the cell phones. It is the only possible explanation."

"That or you went nuts for a moment," Lisbon said.

"Lisbon, look at me," Jane said trying to meet her eyes. "I didn't go nuts."

"I believe you," Lisbon said truthfully. "I am not sure a jury will."

"Yeah, well, that is a problem," Jane said. "I did what I had to do and I will live with the consequences. Next time you come, can you bring some blueberry muffins?"

"Do I even want to know?" Lisbon asked.

"Probably not," Jane said. "Now go home. You need rest. You shouldn't be up and around and visiting people in jail."

"I can't rest with you in here," Lisbon said honestly.

"I will be fine," Jane said as he reached across the table and held her hand. "Remember, this is not my first time in jail."

"Somehow that doesn't really reassure me," Lisbon said.

"Everything will be fine," Jane said.

"You don't know that," Lisbon said.

"Aren't you the one always trying to make me look on the bright side?" Jane said with a smile. Lisbon gave him a weak smile back. "Lisbon, I don't know what is going to happen, but I do know that you need to go rest. You got shot yesterday."

"I'll come back tomorrow to see you," Lisbon said reluctantly as she got up to leave.

"I am counting the minutes," Jane said with a smile as the guard came into get him to take him back to his cell.

Lisbon went back to the office to work out a plan with the team as they were preparing for their suspension. There is no way she was going to let another team investigate this case while she sat at home twiddling her thumbs.

After meeting with the team to see who was on board to help investigate, Lisbon headed home. She had called in a favor to a friend in the CBI and had managed to get a copy of Jane's case file. She spent the whole night reading and thinking of a strategy. She decided she needed to speak to the widow of the man Jane had shot to see try to figure out if this guy was really Red John.

The next day she headed over to Sally Carter's house with Grace to do a little digging. When she was done, she headed back to the jail to visit Jane.

Jane walked into the room. "No muffins?" Jane asked as he sat down.

"Listen, we got a serious problem," Lisbon said.

"Yeah," Jane said. "I was really looking forward to a muffin."

"Forget the muffins," Lisbon said. "Timothy Carter looks innocent. His wife makes a good case for him. His house was clean."

"You searched the whole place?" Jane asked.

"We didn't rip out the floorboard," Lisbon said. "Yeah, sure, he could have been hiding something, but without any clues, we don't even know where to start looking."

Lisbon told Jane about Carter's background and he says it sounds like a fake identity. He just knew something suspicious was going on with that family, especially once Lisbon told him about Timothy Carter putting himself in the middle of a missing woman's investigation.

"Well, that is your classic organized criminal psychopath behavior," Jane said. "Inserting himself into an investigation."

"Again, maybe," Lisbon said. "Or he is a good guy who wants to do the right thing. We have no hard facts. Just your word."

"And you are beginning to think that maybe my word is dubious," Jane said. "Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I shot some random guy."

"No," Lisbon said quickly. Jane stared at her for a moment. He could tell she was lying to him. She knew that he knew she was lying when she saw the sad expression come across his face. "It's crossed my mind. Yeah."

"Fair enough," Jane said. "I guess I am going to have to get out of here to help you with this. Earn your confidence back."

"How?" Lisbon asked. "Your bail is set at a million bucks."

"Yeah, that's no problem," Jane said. "Once I get the money together, I will call you."

"How are you going to do that?" Lisbon asked.

"I'll think of something," Jane said. "Meantime, I need you to get ahold of Timothy Carter's personal effects from forensics."

"Just don't do anything stupid to get yourself into more trouble," Lisbon said as she got up.

"Me?" Jane asked. "Do something stupid?"

"Right now is probably not the best time to act like you always make the best decisions," Lisbon said.

"You might have a good point," Jane said.

The next day after Jane was able to win the money in a jailhouse poker game, he called Lisbon to let her know where to pick up the money.

"How in the world did you get that kind of money so fast?!" Lisbon said.

"No time for questions," Jane said. "Just go get me out of here."

Lisbon went and got the money and then headed to the courthouse to bail Jane out. After he got in the car, they were both silent for a few moments.

"So," Lisbon said. "What did you do? Honestly."

"He had a gun," Jane said staring blankly ahead.

"No, I mean how did you raise the bail money?" Lisbon asked.

"Oh, that," Jane said. "Murder-for-hire. Killed a snitch. Stabbed him in the kidneys."

"You did not," Lisbon said.

"I did not," Jane said. "I won it in a card game, but I had you for a moment. You really do fear for my sanity."

"You have been under a lot of stress," Lisbon said.

"Lisbon, I know lie about a lot of things, but I know I am right about this," Jane said. "You have to believe me."

"I do," Lisbon said. "It's just me believing you does not make it any clearer on exactly what the hell is going on." They headed over to Sally Carter's house again so Jane could question her. He was actually kind of shocked Lisbon was willing to go with him. This could go wrong fast and she could lose her job forever, but she was still standing by him.

Mrs. Carter had been willing to speak to Jane, but once she realized he was trying to play mind games, she wanted no more of it.

Lisbon saw Jane grimace when Sally went off on him. "You are nothing but a sad, crazy person and a murderer," Sally said, stinging Jane to the core. Lisbon was starting to worry if Jane was beginning to doubt himself after that comment.

They headed out of the house and started to drive away.

"You okay?" Lisbon asked.

"Question," Jane said. "Do you trust me?"

"Not 100%, no," Lisbon said.

"Different question then," Jane said. "Can you stop right here?" Jane got out of the car.

"So what's the question?" Lisbon asked.

"How is your injury?" Jane asked, pointing at her arm.

"It hurts," Lisbon said.

"You think you can run?" Jane asked.

"No," Lisbon said.

"Probably don't want to get too excited," Jane said. "You'll pop your stitches. I am going to sneak back inside the Carter house. I want you to stay here until I call you."

"Don't you dare!" Lisbon said. "Jane! Jane!"

Lisbon sat and waited for Jane's call or for a call from the police saying Sally found him in her home and he had been arrested again.

Jane finally called her and told her she better get back to the house immediately. Lisbon was shocked when she walked in and saw Sally Carter and the kidnapped girl. She was able to handcuff Mrs. Carter and the two of them sat around waiting for the police to come to make the arrest since Lisbon technically couldn't do it due to her suspension.

"You ready to go?" Lisbon asked Jane once Mrs. Carter was taken away and the kidnapped woman was taken to the hospital.

"Yeah," Jane said. They got it in the car and started driving.

"Where do you want me to drop you off at?" Lisbon asked.

"In the park," Jane said.

"Why the park?" Lisbon asked confused.

"These might be my last few days of freedom," Jane said. "I want to enjoy the freedom."

"You know, finding that girl is really going to help your case," Lisbon said. "It will prove Timothy Carter was a bad man. You may go free at the trial."

"Still doesn't make my case a slam dunk," Jane said. "I'm an ex-carny, ex-fake psychic, who has had a nervous breakdown. Not exactly the boy next door that everyone loves."

"You got to stop thinking of yourself in that way," Lisbon said. They say silent until Lisbon pulled up in the park.

"I'm sorry," Jane said.

"For what?" Lisbon asked.

"That I can't be the kind of person you can 100% trust," Jane said honestly.

"No one can really trust someone 100%," Lisbon said.

"I trust you 100%," Jane said. "You always have my back. Even when I do crazy crap. You are always there for me. I really appreciate that."

"I just doubted you today," Lisbon said.

"Don't worry about that," Jane said. "I worry about my own sanity at times."

"You going to be okay tonight?" Lisbon asked. "You sure you want to be alone?"

"I'll be fine," Jane said. "You go home." Jane leaned over and kissed Lisbon on the cheek before he got out of the car. Lisbon really hoped he was going to be okay.

Once they found the kidnapped woman, Jane had requested the right to a speedy trial. He knew he needed people to freshly remember the kidnapping so it would help him at trial. It took about two weeks to go to trial and then the trial only lasted 5 days. During this time, Jane did not see Lisbon much. She had tried multiple times to meet up with him, but he said he needed time to think and kept pushing her away. She wasn't quite sure why he didn't want to see her. Once his trial started Jane saw Lisbon sitting in attendance all day, everyday. Finally, on the last day when the trial was going to begin, Jane decided to go visit Lisbon before heading to the courthouse.

Lisbon was shocked when she answered her door to see him standing there.

"Hey," Lisbon said.

"Hey," Jane said. "Can I come in really quick?"

"Sure," Lisbon said, moving so he could step inside. "What's up?"

"By the end of the day my life will be in the jury's hands," Jane said as he turned and faced Lisbon. "I just wanted to come by and thank you for all of your support. Not even just over this. Your support over everything the last few years."

"Why is this sounding like a goodbye?" Lisbon asked nervously.

"It might be if I am found guilty," Jane said. "I'll be in prison for the rest of my life. And you know I will end up pissing the guards off so I will be lucky if I can even have visitors."

"I can't tell which way the jury is leaning," Lisbon said honestly.

"Me either," Jane said. "The one time in my life I can't read people."

"Whatever happens, we will figure something out," Lisbon said trying to sound reassuring.

"I'm sorry I have been distant the last few weeks," Jane said. "I needed to do some thinking."

"I understand," Lisbon said.

"I know it hurt you and I don't mean to do that," Jane said. "I just had to really do some soul searching. Lisbon, I want you to know I meant it when I said you are someone that I love you. I do love you. I've been afraid to say it. It's like I thought if I admitted it something drastically would go wrong. And it's okay if you don't feel the same back. Just having you as a friend the last few years is enough and has meant the world to me." Lisbon let out a small laugh and shook her head.

"So this is the second time you can't read someone," Lisbon said. Jane looked confused. "Jane, for such a smart guy, you are a complete idiot sometimes. I love you, Jane. Even with all of your annoying habits." A giant smile beamed on Jane's face. He took a step forward and wrapped his arms around Lisbon's waist. He slowing bent down and gave Lisbon the most tender kiss she has ever received in her lifetime. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him back, never wanting to let him go. They finally broke the kiss after a few minutes so they they could each catch their breaths. Lisbon was shocked to see some tears in Jane's eyes.

"I don't want to lose you," Jane said.

"You won't," Lisbon said.

"There is something I am not telling you," Jane said.

"What?" Lisbon asked, not sure if she really wanted to know.

"You know the guy I shot?" Jane said. "He wasn't Red John."

"Everything points to him being Red John," Lisbon said. "He knew things about your family's murder that only Red John would know."

"Or that someone working with Red John would know," Jane said.

"Jane, he was Red John," Lisbon said. "You got your vengenace. You can move on."

"What if you are wrong?" Jane asked. "What if Red John is still alive? What if he comes after you because of me? Because of our potential relationship?"

"If I am wrong, which is a really big if, then I dare him to come after me," Lisbon said. "He would be biting off more than he can chew."

"You are willing to risk it for me?" Jane asked.

"You're worth the risk," Lisbon said. "And if Red John is still alive and tries to come between us, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

"I'm thinking I should never cross you," Jane said.

"That is a wise statement," Lisbon responded. Jane bent down and gave her another kiss, happy that he can do this so freely without the worry of being punched.

"I have to head to the courthouse now," Jane said.

"I'll drive you if you like," Lisbon said.

"That would be great," Jane said.

The whole drive to the courthouse Jane held Lisbon's hand in the car. For the first time, he was petrified of being found guilty because he knew this meant that he wouldn't be able to see Lisbon everyday and wouldn't be there to look out for her. He hoped he could do his best that day to convince the jury to set him free. When they got to the courthouse, they walked in together before having to part.

As Lisbon sat and watched the last day of the trial, her stomach was in knots. That morning she had just been worried about losing her friend. Now that Jane had finally admitted his feelings to her and kissed her, she realized she could lose so much more and she knew her future was also in the jury's hands.

She was really worried when the verdict came back so quickly. When the "not guilty" verdict was read, she wanted to jump out of her seat and yell hallelujah at the top of her lungs, but Bertram was sitting really close and she could tell her was not pleased with the outcome.

After all of the commotion died down, Lisbon waited outside impatiently as Jane was being set free. When he walked out of the courthouse, he was so happy to see Lisbon waiting for him, a huge smile on her face. He quickly got in her car and they drove off together.

"How you feel?" Lisbon asked.

"Worried and happy," Jane said.

"Why?" Lisbon asked.

"I'm worried that Red John is still out there watching me," Jane said. "But I am happy that I am here with you." Lisbon couldn't help but smile at that last statement.

"I still believe Red John is dead," Lisbon said.

"I guess only time will tell," Jane responded.

* * *

 **I had to write in the speedy trial thing because the show mad it seem like in a day a murder trial happens. Shows always make things seem faster than they really are and I thought, "hey, if they can do it, so can I".**

 **Please review if this site doesn't do down again and will let you.**


	4. This Is Where I Came In

**I know you all hate me, but I took my vacation to end summer. Don't worry. I don't have any other plans until Christmas season. Fortunately for you all, I have no life.**

 **I do not own The Mentalist. This chapter takes ideas from the episode Little Red Book, which was written by Tom Szentgyorgyi. Try saying that last name 10 times fast.**

* * *

A week after the trial ended, Jane and Lisbon had spent everyday together since. While still upset that she had been suspended, Lisbon was actually enjoying her time off for once since she was not alone this time. They avoided talking about the CBI and Red John and rather just focused on each other. Jane was happy he was able to get Lisbon to open up more about her childhood. Jane was still Jane and had a hard time talking about his past life. Lisbon didn't push too much because she didn't want to bring up bad memories for him. One thing the two were not doing together, though, was spending the night together. Neither one of them wanted to really rush into the next step. Lisbon was still recovering from her gunshot wound and had to attend physical therapy sessions. On top of that she knew it would be hard on Jane since he had not been with anyone since his wife's death. She thought it was best to let him make the first move.

Just like every other day for the past week, the two of them started their morning by meeting up at a local restaurant to have breakfast together and to plan what they wanted to do with their day. In the middle of their conversation, Jane's phone started to ring.

"It's Bertram," Jane said to Lisbon in shock as he looked down at this phone. Neither one of them had heard from anyone at the CBI since the trial had ended and Jane had never thought he would hear from Bertram ever again.

"What do you think he wants?" Lisbon asked.

"I don't know, but right now I am happy we have double jeopardy laws in this country in case Bertram somehow wants to screw me over," Jane said as he answered the phone.

Lisbon could only hear one side of the conversation, but she could tell that Bertram must have asked Jane to come into the CBI office that day to meet with him. Once Jane ended the phone call, Lisbon immediately started to ask questions.

"Why does he want to see you?" Lisbon asked.

"He said he wants to meet with me to discuss things," Jane said. "I'm not sure what he means. This could be good or bad."

"How did his tone sound?" Lisbon asked.

"He seemed okay," Jane said. "But his tone rarely changes unless he is flat out yelling at someone."

"Maybe I should come with you," Lisbon said.

"It's probably best you don't," Jane said. He could tell from the look on her face that she seemed a little hurt by the comment so he expanded further. "This might be my official firing from the CBI. Probably best for you and your career if they don't continue to link you to me until after your hearing."

"He'd be dumb to fire you," Lisbon said. "You have helped solve so many cases. Some cases in which Bertram thought were impossible to solve."

"Well, I never did think he was the brightest man," Jane said. "I'm going to head over there. We can meet up at your place after the meeting to discuss what happened. If it's bad, I'll take you to the firing range afterwards so you can shoot things. Maybe I'll bring a picture of Bertram." Lisbon laughed a little. Jane got up to leave. He wanted to lean down and kiss her goodbye, but they had agreed not to do these things in public until they had told everyone about them, which they had decided they would give it awhile until everything was decided on Lisbon's suspension. They didn't want to do anything to rock the boat.

Jane headed straight to the CBI to meet with Bertram. He was surprised that he actually felt a little nervous about the situation.

"Come on in," Bertram said as Jane knocked on his door. Jane sat down in front of Bertram's desk waiting to hear his fate.

"I called you to see if you wanted to continue consulting for the CBI," Bertram said.

"I would," Jane said. He was a little suspicious. He hadn't really expected to be taken back after everything that had went down and all the press the trial had received. Bertram reached into his desk and grabbed out Jane's CBI ID and handed it to him.

"Your identification," Bertram said. "Congratulations. You are once again a consultant with the CBI."

"Thank you," Jane said before turning his attention to what was really on his mind. "What about Lisbon?"

"Agent Lisbon remains on suspension pending the departmental investigation into her actions in the Red John matter," Bertram answered coldly. "You will be working with Ray Haffner from now on. He's an excellent agent. A top flight team."

"You're dumping her?" Jane asked in shock.

"Not at all," Bertram said. "We're conducting a careful and scrupulously fair review."

"You're rehiring me and firing Lisbon," Jane responded back. "That's a little perverse, don't you think?"

"Well, you see, you close cases," Bertram said. "Agent Lisbon ran a covert operation that lead to the deaths of two police officers and one FBI agent. There just has to be some accountability there."

"My operation," Jane chimed in. "It was my operation."

"Well, that is exactly the problem," Bertram said. "We expect better supervision from our senior agents which is why Lisbon is being investigated and her team being reassigned to different posts."

Jane couldn't help but feel guilty for her firing. He knew it was his fault because it was his operation and she was just trying to help catch Red John. He knew he had made many mistakes in his life, but he never liked others to suffer because of his choices. He didn't want Lisbon to suffer. When Bertram handed him the location of his first case back, at first he just wanted to quit, but instead he decided to take the case to get his plan in motion of not only getting Lisbon back on the job, but her back as his partner.

After visiting the crime scene and meeting his new team, Jane headed back to Lisbon's place to fill her in on the details.

"What happened?" Lisbon asked as she opened the door for Jane to let him in. "You were gone for hours."

"I had to make a pit stop on the way back here," Jane said as he sat down on the couch. Lisbon followed suit and set down next to him.

"So what did Bertram say?" Lisbon asked impatiently.

"Tell me," Jane started. "What do you know about this guy Ray Haffner?"

"You're back at work?" Lisbon asked. She was a little shocked he was being brought back after he was accused of murder and yet she had to go through a hearing.

"Yeah," Jane said. "He wants me to consult again. I am being assigned to Haffner's team."

Lisbon was not only upset that she was probably losing her job, but Jane was going to be working with another team. It felt a little like he was being taking away from her. Lisbon let him know all she knew about Haffner.

"Just so you know, Jane, I'm okay," Lisbon said afterwards.

"About?" Jane asked.

"Losing my job," Lisbon said. "I'm not going to say I like it, but we got Red John. It was worth it."

"Don't be silly," Jane said. "A, you haven't lost your job."

"The hearing is a formality," Lisbon said matter-of-factly.

"And B, we didn't get Red John," Jane said.

"Timothy Carter told you he was Red John," Lisbon said.

"He lied, "Jane said. "Red John is still out there. Look, we can argue about this later. Right now I have to help you get your job back."

"I'm fine," Lisbon said.

"No, you're not," Jane said. "You have been a cop for so long that there is no way you can give it up so easily. And you don't deserve to lose your job anyway. They are just looking for a scapegoat because of O'Laughlin being dirty which makes the department look bad. Look, I do appreciate that you were willing to lose your job to help make sure we got Red John and that is why I can't let you lose your job over a man that is not really Red John."

"Jane," Lisbon pleaded. "You are looking for a man you already killed."

"Maybe," Jane said. "Or maybe I am right and I got the wrong bad guy. I'll figure out a way to prove he is alive and get your job back." Jane stood up to leave. "I have to run to meet Haffner, but I gotta know something first."

"What?" Lisbon asked.

"Are we okay?" Jane asked. "I'm the reason you might lose your job. You can act like losing your job is fine, but you are a horrible liar and I can see right through you. I hate being the cause of all of this."

"Don't feel guilty," Lisbon said as she stood up in front of him. "I agreed with the plan and I am happy I did. Regardless if Timothy Carter is Red John, a bad guy is dead and you're here with me. It makes it all worth it. I wouldn't change anything I did. Except maybe pull my gun faster so I wouldn't get shot." Jane smiled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him. He leaned down and gave her a big kiss. Lisbon felt like she would never tire of the feeling she felt whenever they kissed. When they finally stopped kissing, Jane let out a sigh.

"It's going to be no fun investigating without you," Jane said.

"Just be safe," Lisbon said.

"Can I give Haffner some of your perfume so he smells like you?" Jane asked. Lisbon shoved him away.

"That is so creepy," Lisbon said with a laugh.

"I'll catch up with you later," Jane said with a smile as he headed out the door.

As Jane went back to work, Lisbon sat in her apartment thinking of all of the recent events. Despite what Jane thought, she didn't really care she was going to lose her job, but she knew Jane was right that she would be pissed if she found out she lost her job and Red John wasn't really dead. She decided she needed to go speak with Sally Carter to prove once and for all that Timothy Carter was in fact Red John. With the help of LaRoche, she headed to the CBI , but when she went into Sally Carter's cell, she found her dead from a suicide.

Jane had been upstairs lying on his couch when he heard the news about Sally Carter's death. He ran down to the holding cells to see what happened. He was a little shocked to see Lisbon there.

"What are you doing here?" Jane asked.

"I came to ask her if her husband was Red John because you need convincing," Lisbon said.

"Nice try," Jane said.

"Turns out I didn't need to ask," Lisbon said. "She left a note." She started to read the note aloud to Jane. "See? You did it. You killed Red John." Jane took the note and started reading it. "Jane?"

"Shh," Jane said. "I'm reading."

"I'm leaving," Lisbon said frustrated.

"Lisbon, wait," Jane said, grabbing her arm to stop her. He took her aside to make sure no one could hear them.

"My gut it telling me that Red John is not dead," Jane said. "You know my instincts are usually pretty good."

"I just want to make sure you are not creating a new game in your mind," Lisbon said. "We have no proof Red John is alive. Everything points to him being dead."

"I'll try to get you proof," Jane said.

"Until then, I am going under the assumption Red John is dead," Lisbon said. "Okay?"

"Okay," Jane said.

"I am going to head back home before Bertram finds me here," Lisbon said.

* * *

A couple hours later, Lisbon had been sitting home reading through some case files when a knock came upon her door. She was a little thrown to see her whole previous team on her doorstep. She invited them in and they sat down and explained what they had been doing to try to get her job back.

"No, no, no," Lisbon said after Jane had finished explaining the plan.

"Don't be hasty," Jane said.

"I will deal with you in a minute," Lisbon stated to him before addressing the team. "Go to Haffner and apologize. Tell him it was all Jane's fault."

"Well, that hardly seems fair," Jane said.

Lisbon ignored him and continued talking to the team. "Maybe you can convince him to give you another chance," Lisbon said.

"That's not going to happen," Grace said honestly.

"Oh, God," Lisbon said. "What are you doing this? You were okay. All you had to do was keep your heads down."

"We want to work for you," Grace said.

"Let me talk to Jane alone," Lisbon said to the team. After they got up and left, Lisbon turned to face Jane.

"I could kill you with my bare hands," Lisbon said.

"Well, that's not the first time," Jane said with a coy smile. "Come on. You don't have a choice. You do nothing, they get fired. You work with me, they keep their jobs. And you might even get yours back. I don't want to work there if you are not there with me."

"Jane, you are an excellent investigator," Lisbon said. "I know this is hard for you to admit to being a cop, but you are wonderful at it. You shouldn't stop just because I am fired. You can do a lot of people good. You can help get bad guys off the streets. Playing these games with Haffner is going to get you fired."

"But you are the only person I really trust," Jane said. "I don't know if I can trust this Haffner guy or weird his team. Look at O'Laughlin. We thought we could trust him and he ended up working for Red John. Lisbon, you can't let this firing happen or you may never get another job on the force again. Don't let them do that to you. Let me help you."

"Alright," Lisbon said reluctantly. "But it is just you and me. They don't do anything else. And you are going to keep me involved in the plan. No more going behind my back."

"If I had told you about the plan there is no way you would have agreed to it," Jane said.

"Exactly," Lisbon said.

"And there would be no chance for you to get your job back," Jane said.

"But the team's jobs would not be in jeopardy," Lisbon said.

"They agreed to do this," Jane said. "No one forced them. They love working with you. You are a lovable person. Even if you do threaten to kill people with your bare hands."

"That might still happen if you don't behave," Lisbon said.

"I can give you 24 hours of behaving," Jane said. "That's the best I can do."

"You won't even be able to make that," Lisbon said.

"Probably not," Jane said. "I'm probably going to end up fired." Jane leaned down and gave her a quick kiss her on the cheek. "Now lets go catch a murderer."

Lisbon went along with Jane's plan and they were able to catch the murderer together without Haffner's help. She was happy it all went down easily with no real problems. On the way back to the CBI, Lisbon and Jane talked about what to do next.

"When we get back to the CBI, let me talk to Bertram," Lisbon said. "Hopefully I can convince him to not fault the others for you tricking Haffner."

"And you can convince him to get your job back," Jane said.

"Don't get your hopes up," Lisbon said.

"This can't be our last case together," Jane said. "No one even tried to shoot at us."

"I call that a good day on the job," Lisbon said.

"But a horrible last case story," Jane said. "We should have stopped after you had the bomb strapped to your chest. I sounded like a hero in that story."

"You sounds like a disobedient jackass in that story," Lisbon said with a laugh.

"You're not telling it correctly if that is how I come across," Jane said. "My version would turn into an action movie. Of course, with how Hollywood writes women, you will end up being a damsel in distress who was probably in a bikini at the time."

"And your character would somehow have his shirt fall off and a have a six pack underneath as you save the day," Lisbon said.

"That sounds like an accurate depiction of me," Jane said. Lisbon laughed.

"Oh, please," Lisbon said.

"All muscle under this vest, baby," Jane said wiggling his eyebrow.

"Baby?" Lisbon asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I don't know where that came from," Jane said with a laugh.

When they got to the CBI, Lisbon tried to talk to Bertam, but he didn't want to speak to her. He insisted on speaking to Haffner and Jane together. While Lisbon waited in the lobby, she knew it probably wasn't good when Haffner stormed out of Bertram's office very upset.

"Jane's an ass," Haffner said to her as he walked by.

After Haffner had left the room, Bertram looked at Jane. "Now I have a problem because our urgent need for your skills is precisely balanced by my desire to fire you before you destroy the bureau or my career," Bertram said. "Or both."

"I understand," Jane said. "You're in a tough spot. You know who has always been a healthy, moderating influence on me?"

Bertram laughed a little. "Yeah, of course," Bertram said. "Lisbon. Well, I'm sorry. Not possible."

"Well, then, you will continue to have a problem," Jane said with a smile.

Bertram stood up. "Get out of my office," Bertram said to Jane. Bertram walked over to the door and opened it. He pointed at Lisbon. "Get in my office." Jane gave Lisbon a smile as they walked past each other. Bertram slammed the door after Jane left.

"Boss," Lisbon said not knowing what to expect.

"I don't know what is going on between you and Jane, but one thing for sure is you better keep him under control," Bertram said. "This is your last chance. Understood? I am going to have to put my neck on the line to get them to agree to keep you."

"Yes, sir," Lisbon said. "Thank you, sir."

"Now get the hell out of my office," Bertram said. Lisbon exited his office and Jane and her walked to her office together.

"How did you do it?" Lisbon asked him as they walked together. "Get Bertram to come around."

"It wasn't too hard," Jane said. "A rational discussion between two reasonable men."

"Rational discussion," Lisbon said. "I bet."

"I may have threatened to make his life a living hell if you were not here working with me," Jane said. "It seemed rational to me."

"What if he had just fired you?" Lisbon asked.

"He wasn't going to," Jane said. "Someone is making him keep me around. I can tell. I knew I could demand you back. Or demand an office for myself. I figured I could get you back and sleep in your office. Two for the price of one."

Grace interrupted them to let Jane know Rosalyn was there.

"What are you seeing her for?" Lisbon asked after Grace left.

"I wanted her to confirm whether or not Timothy Carter is Red John," Jane said. "I wanted to get you proof."

"What if she says he is Red John?" Lisbon asked. "Will you finally put this to rest?"

"I'll believe her if she says he is Red John," Jane said. "I'll move on."

"I'm going to go with you," Lisbon insisted.

"Okay," Jane said knowing there was no way she was going to let him say no. They headed down to meet Rosalyn and took her to the morgue. Rosalyn confirmed that Timothy Carter was in fact not Red John. Lisbon finally believed that Jane was right.

After Rosalyn left, Jane and Lisbon talked about the discovery.

"I was kinda hoping I was wrong," Jane said. "I was hoping I had really gotten him."

"What do you think Red John's game is?" Lisbon asked.

"I'm not sure," Jane said. "What I do know is that we need to keep this between us, though. It's best Red John doesn't know we know. Who knows if he still has people working in the CBI. We are safe for now with just us knowing."

"Maybe he will just go into hiding forever and we will never have to deal with him again," Lisbon said hopeful.

"Maybe," Jane said. "He might want the game to be over, but he might also be upset I didn't go to jail for killing Timothy Carter. That might have been his plan for me. We will just have to wait and see. We also need to be careful about us. We should probably wait to tell anyone, including the team. He may come after you if he knows we are together."

"He can bring it," Lisbon said. "I am not going to let him ruin a good thing."

* * *

 **So I don't know what episode I want to write it that they do it for the first time. Any suggestions? Just remember this is T so it won't be over the top. You will have to use your imagination a little so I don't scare away readers.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	5. Lean On Me

**Thanks for all of the kind reviews I have received. This was my first attempt at writing and I was very nervous. Blame a clogged sewer line for this being a couple days later than I had anticipated.**

 **I do not own The Mentalist. This chapter takes ideas from the episode Pretty Red Balloon, which was written by Ashley Gable.**

* * *

It had been a few days since Lisbon had returned back to work and everything was finally feeling back to normal. The team was back together again, Lisbon was at the job she loved, and Jane was once again being Jane.

"You all set for tomorrow?" Lisbon asked the team as she walked into the room.

"Twelve o'clock sharp," Grace said. "We're all ready."

"We talking about lunch?" Jane asked intrigued. "That sounds civilized."

"You got the memo," Lisbon said. "We're talking about the mandatory seminar on budget protocols."

"Oh," Jane said. "Have fun with that."

"You're coming, too, Jane," Lisbon responded.

"Ah, you're joking, of course," Jane sad. "I don't do seminars."

"Oh, you do when there mandatory," Lisbon shot back.

As Jane and Lisbon argued back and forth about the seminar, Grace couldn't help but quietly laugh at the scene that played out in front of her. They reminded her of an old married couple. She had missed this.

"Jane," Lisbon pleaded.

"Lisbon, I understand your precarious emotional state given you've just gotten your job back and your sensitivity to the bureaucrats watching your every move," Jane started.

"They are," Lisbon interrupted.

"Yes, but that's your thing," Jane said. "I've got to be me. I can't change who I am."

"No, but you can change where you are tomorrow at twelve," Lisbon said.

"That's not going to happen," Jane responded.

"You think this is funny?" Lisbon turned and asked Grace who had a giant smirk on her face.

Grace didn't get a chance to respond as Cho came in to announce the team had been personally requested on a new case.

"It's good to have her back," Grace stated to Jane as Lisbon walked away.

"Mmm, yes, it is," Jane said. He followed Lisbon as she headed towards the exit. The two of them got into the elevator together. As it started to go down, Lisbon stared at Jane.

"Do I have a booger or something?" Jane asked trying to lighten the mood.

"You're going to that seminar tomorrow," Lisbon said.

"I know," Jane said.

"Then why were you just arguing with me?" Lisbon asked annoyed.

"People would have thought it was weird if I just caved and agreed," Jane said defending himself. "That doesn't sound like me at all. They would have known something was going on between us. I was trying to keep our relationship on the down low."

"You're an ass," Lisbon said.

"That sounds about right," Jane said.

"And don't use the term 'down low'," Lisbon said. "It sounds weird coming out of your mouth."

Jane, Lisbon, Cho, and Rigsby hopped into a van and headed to the home of the woman whose son had been kidnapped that morning. While the team was discussing the case, Jane realized he knew the mother.

Jane and Lisbon walked into the home together to find the mother talking to some of the local cops. Lisbon was a little taken aback as the woman ran to Jane and wrapped her arms around him provided him a big hug.

"Patrick!" Beth said. "Oh, thank God you are here."

From their conversation with each other, Lisbon was able to quickly figure out that the woman was a former client of Jane's. Although he tried his hardest to explain to the woman that he never really was a psychic, the woman didn't seem to want to hear a word of it.

"Excuse me ma'am," Lisbon finally interrupted. "I'm sorry, ma'am. Would you excuse me for a moment? I'm sorry."

Lisbon grabbed Jane's arm and led him outside to discuss with him about Beth being a former client.

"She's an old client," Lisbon said when they were clear of the house.

"Ah, yeah," Jane said.

"This is a mess we don't have time for," Lisbon said. "That boy is out there somewhere and this psychic stuff is a distraction. I think you better leave."

"Can't say I disagree," Jane said. As he was about to leave, Beth's new spiritual advisor, Nathan Glass, arrived. Jane knew he wanted to stay to see what was going on with this guy.

"Second thought," Jane said to Lisbon with a smile on his face as he followed Glass into the home.

Lisbon stood there and sighed, knowing this was going to be a long case with Jane sticking around to mess with the new psychic.

Lisbon and Jane went back in and started to interview Beth to try to determine who could have kidnapped her son. As the interview went on, Jane kept trying to explain to Beth he was never a psychic, but rather just a con artist who took her money and told her lies. It was hard for Lisbon to sit there and watch someone that Jane used to con and see how desperate these people were who had seeked out his help. This woman really believed Jane could use psychic powers to find her son and she was getting upset because she thought Jane just didn't want to help.

After they finished speaking to Beth, Lisbon and Jane walked into another room to talk.

"Are you okay?" Lisbon asked.

"I feel bad," Jane said. "I hate I used to con nice people like her. I hate how she thinks I'm horrible because I won't help find her son. I don't know how to make her believe I'm not really a psychic. I can't just have a vision and find her son. If I could, I would. I of all people know how much it hurts to lose a kid."

"You may not be a psychic, but you are one hell of an investigator," Lisbon said. "We just have to do what we can to find Connor. We can't give up hope."

As they finished talking, Beth's stepson and brother arrived at the home. Jane and Lisbon went and talked with them to see if they could find out any new information. Beth's brother was not too happy to see Jane since he knew all about him taking Beth's money with his scams and he told Jane that he should have gone to jail because he is a miserable sleazebag. Lisbon interrupted the arguing between them all to remind them they didn't have to time to argue since they are here to find Connor Also, even though she knew Jane had done shady things in his past, she still didn't want to see people talk to him that way. Before she could stop him, Jane insulted the two men. Once again, Lisbon had to pull Jane into another room to talk to him.

"I am starting to worry that you might actually be enjoying this situation," Lisbon said as she gave him a slight punch in the arm.

"I'm not enjoying it," Jane said rubbing his arm. "I just hate how everyone acts like I am a horrible person, yet everyone has their demons. They don't have a right to judge me. Plus, I was just testing them I wanted to if I was right about their addictions and she how they would react to them being talked about out in the open. We can't rule anyone out as a suspect. A lot of time family is involved. People with hidden addictions are sometimes very desperate people."

"You need to behave," Lisbon said. "Otherwise I am going to have to kick you off the case. Now I need to go check in with Grace. Just go look around and see if you can find anything. Try not to piss anyone else off."

Jane headed up to Connor's room to look around without people bothering him. As he sat next to the window in the room he thought about how he had tricked Beth into believing she was going to have a baby boy. As he was daydreaming, Beth came in to talk to him and he once again tried to make her see he is not and never has been a psychic. Beth then brought up Charlotte's death and asked if that is why he was denying his gift. Before they could finish talking, Glass ran upstairs, acting like he was having a vision about Connor. Lisbon followed him up the stairs since she had told him to stay downstairs. Glass proceeded to have a fake reading which caused Jane to roll his eyes.

After the vision was over, Beth ran downstairs to tell her brother and step-son all about it. Jane and Lisbon followed and Jane tried to explain to them that Glass was just pulling a scam on her.

"You're sick," Beth said to Jane. "Nate would never do that."

"Of course, he would," Jane said. "Believe me. He would."

"No, you don't know, Patrick," Beth said. "Apparently, you don't know anything. My son called out for me. He is alive, but you won't believe it because you can't stand what you are so you just runaway from yourself and you hate anybody like you and you hurt anyone that cares for you."

"That doesn't mean I'm psychic," Jane said. "That just means you're gullible and desperate."

"What is wrong with you that you treat people like that?" Beth's brother asked.

"Ah, you should have seen me ten years ago," Jane stated to him. Jane walked out and left Lisbon to stay behind to try to calm everyone down.

After Lisbon apologized to everyone about Jane's behavior, she headed out to speak to Jane who was standing on the front sidewalk waiting for her.

"Do you call that behaving?" Lisbon asked. "You got to stop. It is like your conscience is battling your old self. There's no upside."

"You think that is why I am here?" Jane asked. "That's intriguing." Jane headed down the driveway and got into the CBI SUV. Lisbon followed and they headed back to the CBI. The car ride was silent for awhile before Jane spoke.

"Do you think I'm a bad person?" Jane asked.

"People change," Lisbon said. "And you have changed. You are not the same guy that walked into the CBI all those years ago."

"So you are saying I _was_ a bad person?" Jane asked.

"Jane, from the little you have told be about your past, your upbringing lead you astray when you were younger," Lisbon said. "You didn't know any different. You did what you thought you had to do to get by."

"You really think I have changed since I was that guy that fooled Beth all those years ago?" Jane asked.

"Yes," Lisbon said. "You need to stop being so hard on yourself."

"You know I just killed a guy, right?" Jane asked.

"A really bad guy," Lisbon said. She reached over and grabbed Jane's hand. "Like you said, we all have our demons. Don't let them take control of you."

"I'm letting Glass get to me," Jane said. "For some reason he just annoys the crap out of me."

"Because you see he is taking advantage of Beth," Lisbon said.

"But I used to do that, too," Jane said.

"See?" Lisbon said. "You have changed."

"I don't like it," Jane said. "It's making me feel things."

"I know turning into a better person is rough, but you'll survive," Lisbon said.

* * *

After they returned to the CBI, Jane lied on his couch as the team figured out who had been kidnapping some young kids in the area, including possibly Connor. The team started to get ready to head out and catch the guy, but before they left, Jane called Lisbon over to his couch.

"Maybe I should come, too," Jane said.

"No," Lisbon said. "You don't have the training to go after this guy and if something bad does happen, I don't want to have to worry about having to protect you, too."

"Just be careful," Jane said. "I got a bad feeling about this."

"Feeling psychic again?" Lisbon asked jokingly.

"Paranoid is probably a better word for it," Jane said.

"I'll be okay," Lisbon said. "I'll be back soon and we can head out for a late night snack."

The team headed to the bad guy's house to arrest him. As they approached, the sound of gunshots filled the air. Lisbon was nervous as she walked towards the front of the house, thinking of what Jane had told her before she left. She knew he was not really psychic, but that didn't really seem to calm her nerves too much at the moment. As she was making her away around a corner of the home, Lisbon almost got shot, but fortunately for her Grace was able to save her at the last moment by shooting the bad guy dead.

A few moments later, Jane called Lisbon. His heart dropped as he heard her breathing really hard over the phone when she answered. It made his mind flash back to when she was shot by O'Laughlin.

"Are you okay?" Jane asked worriedly.

"Yes," Lisbon said. "I'm very happy Grace is a good shot."

"What happened?" Jane asked.

"I almost got shot, but Grace shot him dead," Lisbon said.

"That's good to hear," Jane said. "I would feel guilty if I got your job back just to get you killed by a mad man. I just called you to tell you to have Rigsby look in his pocket. Jane hanged up the phone and Rigsby read the note revealing that Jane knew this guy was not the guy that kidnapped Connor.

When the team got back to the office, Jane walked over and gave Grace a giant hug for saving Lisbon's life. He then headed towards Lisbon's office.

"What was that about?" Cho asked Grace after Jane walked away.

"I have no idea," Grace said. "Who really knows with him."

Jane stopped by Lisbon's office to make sure she really was fine.

"You sure you are okay?" Jane asked as he barged in.

"I'm just a little shaken up," Lisbon said. "Brought back a lot of bad memories." Jane walked over and gave her a big hug. He didn't really care if anyone saw because he could tell she needed comforting.

"You should head home," Jane said after about a minute.

"You want to come over for a little while?" Lisbon asked. She didn't really want to be alone at the moment.

"Sure," Jane said. He could tell she was really upset about what had occurred, and truth be told, he didn't want to leave her side.

The minute they walked into her home, Lisbon wrapped her arms around Jane and rested her head on his shoulder. Being close to him some how made her feel safe. She knew he always had her back. Jane leaned down and kissed the top of her head as he rubbed her back gently, trying to soothe her nerves. After a few moments, Lisbon looked up into Jane's eyes, causing him to lean down and gave her a tender kiss on her lips.

"Stay the night," Lisbon whispered against his lips. It wasn't a question, but rather a statement. She knew it was a giant risk that could result in rejection, but she didn't care. She just wanted him there with her. She wanted to be near him. Jane leaned down and gave her an even deeper kiss. Their tongues danced around together in each other's mouth. Their hands started going all over each other's bodies, investigating for the first time. Both were nervous, just like teenagers.

Jane finally pulled away from the kiss because he couldn't breath. He looked down into her eyes.

"You sure?" Jane asked. A loving smile came across Lisbon's face. She interlaced her fingers with his. At the moment she couldn't think of any place she would rather be than here with him.

"As long as you are ready," Lisbon said.

"More than ready," Jane said.

Lisbon pulled his hands to lead him towards her bedroom. She walked backwards and he followed her nervously, but gladly. Lisbon had been thinking about this moment for a very long time and she couldn't believe it was actually here. Both of their hearts were pounding so hard they thought they were going to pound right out of their chests. Lisbon finally reached her bedroom and walked until she felt her legs hit the side of her mattress.

Jane wrapped her arms around her and gave her a tender kiss as he slowly lowered her down on the bed.

That night they moved together in unison and both of them finally broke down some of the walls that they had built to keep others from getting to close.

* * *

The next morning, Lisbon woke up to a warm feeling under her face. She opened her eyes and realized her face was lying on Jane's bare chest. She thought back to the night before and couldn't help but smile.

"What you smiling about," Jane said with a giant grin on his face causing Lisbon to jump a little.

"Hey," Lisbon said looking up into his eyes. "I didn't know you were awake."

"I've only been awake for about ten minutes," Jane said. "The sun shines directly into your bedroom window right into my eyes. That's going to have to change."

"One night here and you are already redecorating the place," Lisbon said with a smile.

"Just need to add some drapes," Jane said. "I'm willing to look past your ugly sheets." Lisbon smacked his chest lightly. Her phone started to ring.

"Ugh," Lisbon said.

"I would say we should call in sick today, but even I would feel bad for taking a sick day when a kid is missing," Jane said. "Plus, they may find it suspicious if we both call in sick on the same day. Unless we say we had sushi."

"You are the one that wanted me to get my job back," Lisbon said as she reached over and grabbed her phone of the night stand.

"I'm an idiot," Jane said.

Lisbon answered her phone. Cho was letting her know they confirmed once and for all the bad guy Grace killed the night before was not the person who could have kidnapped Connor.

"Once again, you were right," Lisbon said to Jane after she hanged up the phone. "Let me ask you something. How did you know that guy wasn't the kidnapper? And why didn't you tell me before I went out there?"

"Would you guys have responded differently if you had known?" Jane asked.

"No," Lisbon said.

"Than all is good," Jane said. "As far as knowing, Connor's kidnapping seemed different than the others. I'm thinking that we need to talk to Beth. Look closer at the family dynamics."

"Does this mean I have to get out of bed?" Lisbon asked.

"For now, m'lady," Jane said. Lisbon leaned over and gave him a giant kiss on the lips.

"I always shower before work," Lisbon said with a smile as she got out of bed.

"Um...yeah," Jane said. "Me, too." He jumped out of bed and followed her into the bathroom.

When they headed into the office, Lisbon decided it was best for her to talk to Beth without Jane being present since he was a distraction to her. After she finished speaking with her, Lisbon went back to find Jane sitting on his couch.

"I think the mom is clean," Lisbon said as she plopped down right next to him. "What are you thinking?"

"I was thinking, love is strange," Jane said. "And I was thinking about a sandwich."

"Love is strange?" Lisbon asked. "I guess I would agree with that. Look at my taste in men."

"Ha, ha," Jane said. "That's not what you said last night." Lisbon gave him a slight elbow in the rib as Rigsby came and provided a little more information about the crime scene. After Rigsby walked away, Jane got a big smile on his face.

"Got it," Jane said as he got up quickly. He turned back around and looked at Lisbon who was still sitting on the couch. "Just to let you know, I am about to do something weird. See? I told you. Partners." He then walked away without telling her what he was going to do. Lisbon got up and followed him as he walked over to Beth and started having a fake psychic reading. Lisbon watched in shock at the scene playing out in front of her and she realized that Jane really could be a convincing psychic and she understood why people believed him all of those years. Jane went into full on theatrics to explain where he thought Connor was and ended up lying down on the floor as he finished his over dramatic vision. When he was finally done, Lisbon slapped Jane's face to wake him up from his fake vision. She then sent Cho and Beth's family to start an investigation around her home to try to locate Connor.

"You didn't need to hit me," Jane said to Lisbon after everyone left.

"I wanted to make it believable," Lisbon said with a smile as she helped him up.

"You would have totally believed me if you didn't know I was a fake," Jane said.

"All psychics are fake," Lisbon responded.

"Says the gullible woman," Jane said.

"Psychics are something I have never believed in," Lisbon said. "If psychics were real, someone would have predicted the attacks of September 11 rather than knowing I will meet a dark haired handsome man."

"Oh, my God," Jane said. "Are you cheating on me with Rigsby?"

"You finally figured it out," Lisbon said.

"You just used me last night, didn't you?" Jane asked with a fake hurt tone.

"Don't worry," Lisbon responded. "I will take your blond curls any day of the week."

"Let's go wrap up this case," Jane said. "We have better things to be doing."

* * *

It didn't take very long for the team to found Connor and catch Beth's step-son as the kidnapper. Afterwards, Jane and Lisbon were the ones who got to return Connor home to his mother. As Lisbon headed into the home with Beth and Connor, Jane stayed outside with Glass. He had thought ahead and recorded his whole conversation with Glass to prove once and for all that Glass was a fake so Beth would stop spending her money on him.

Satisfied, Jane went into the house to meet up with the rest. Finally, Beth acknowledged she now realized Jane was a fake and everything was just a trick. Lisbon listened in as Jane explained how he had figured out where Connor was located. She was happy he was able to prove he was a good investigator and not a psychic. She knew he really wanted to get away from that part of his life. Jane tried to apologize to Beth for lying to her all those years prior, but she said she was happy for the hope he had given. Lisbon smiled, realizing that Jane did do some good for people, even if he didn't really know their future. Beth gave Jane a kiss on the cheek and he and Lisbon left to head back to the CBI.

"Cheer up," Lisbon said.

"Oh, I'm cheery," Jane said.

"You heard her," Lisbon said. "You have her hope."

"I didn't give her hope," Jane responded. "I sold her hope."

"I think hope is worth it at any price," Lisbon quipped back.

"What are you running for office now?" Jane joked.

"Okay, you now what?" Lisbon said. "You're a wicked charlatan and you are going to hell then."

"That's more like it," Jane said. "I'll save you a seat by the fire."

"Oh, I'm not going to hell," Lisbon said.

"Oh, you're not?" Jane asked.

"Nope," Lisbon said.

"You've made other arrangements, huh?" Jane asked.

"Mmm-hmm," Lisbon responded.

"Where are you going?" Jane asked.

"Do you really want to have this conversation?" Lisbon asked. "You ready for some theological talk here?"

"I don't really want to have that conversation," Jane said.

"Would you rather talk about you being kissed by another woman?" Lisbon asked.

"On the cheek," Jane said.

"You seemed to enjoy it too much," Lisbon said.

"After last night, believe me, I don't want any other woman's kisses," Jane said.

"Right answer," Lisbon said as they both hopped in the car.

"Except Sandra Bullock," Jane said with a smirk.

"Wrong answer," Lisbon with a laugh as they started their drive back to the CBI.

* * *

 **By the way, if you don't know the song "Beyond The Blue Horizon," you should Youtube the Lou Christie version from 1973. By far the best version of a song from the 1930s. Starts off a little slow, but picks up nicely. Very uplifting song and reminds me a lot of Jane and Lisbon's relationship.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed this chapter.**


	6. I Gotta Feeling

**Thank you for all of your kind words. They motivate me to write more.**

 **I do not own The Mentalist. This chapter takes ideas from the episode Ring Around The Rosie, which was written by Daniel Cerone.**

* * *

It was a Sunday night and Jane and Lisbon were lying down together on her couch and watching a movie. Lisbon was curled up into Jane's side and he was rubbing his hand up and down her arm. Between the sound of his breathing and his light touch against her, Lisbon felt like she could stay in this position for the rest of her life. She was amazed of how Jane had managed to ease right into staying with her every night and it felt so normal like it should have always been this way. After everything she had gone through recently, it felt it was worth it since she had gotten Jane. She was quickly taken out of her wonderful daydreaming by the sound of her phone ringing. She saw it was Bertram that was calling so she answered it. Jane watched her intensely as she spoke on the phone.

"What did he want?" Jane asked after Lisbon hung up the phone.

"I guess everyone is worried about the mayor's rally tomorrow so they want as many people there as possible to make sure things go to plan so they are forcing my team to work it also," Lisbon said. "I hate these kind of things. They are so dull."

"Don't they have plenty of beat cops that can do this instead of you guys?" Jane asked. "It feels like a waste of your talents."

"Those cops don't really have the training if something bad actually were to happen," Lisbon said. "They need some people with experience there and since we don't have a major case right now Bertram volunteered us."

"There's going to be a lot of angry protesters there," Jane said. "The mayor has really pissed a lot of people off. I swear Bertram just likes putting you into harm's way."

"Don't worry about it," Lisbon said as she curled up tightly against him again. "I have worked many of these before. They end up being super boring with usually just some random drunk person yelling something stupid in my face."

"What if someone throws a bomb in your face this time?" Jane said.

"Someone may want to kill the mayor, but not me," Lisbon said. "I doubt I will get a bomb thrown into my face."

"Just remember you are not secret service," Jane said. "You don't have to jump in front of him. He's on his own"

"You are so paranoid," Lisbon said with a laugh.

"I don't know why," Jane said. "It's not like working at the CBI has made me realize there are crazy murderers hiding in plain sight waiting to just go off on someone."

"If someone goes crazy, Grace will be there to shoot them," Lisbon said causing both of them to laugh.

"That's horrible," Jane said. "Yet true." Jane leaned down and kissed the top of Lisbon's head and they then went back to watching the movie together.

The next morning Lisbon got up out of bed as soon as her alarm went off so she could make it to the rally in time, but Jane stayed curled up under the covers. She headed to the bathroom to take a shower and decided to let him get a few more moments of sleep before she tried to wake up. When she finally returned from the bathroom, she saw that he was awake, but still lying in bed.

"You going to get up some time today?" Lisbon asked as she made her towel wrapped body over to the closet to get some clothes.

"Staying in bed sounds better," Jane said as he watched her. "Plus, I have a nice view from here."

"Perv," Lisbon said.

"I'm your boyfriend," Jane said. "I can look at you without being a perv because you already gave me permission."

"Boyfriend, huh?" Lisbon asked. They hadn't used that term before to describe that part of the relationship.

"Can I not use that term?" Jane asked. "Do I have to ask you to go steady first?"

"It's just weird to actually hear you say it," Lisbon said.

"I'm going to call you my boo," Jane said.

"Not if you want to keep on living," Lisbon said.

"Shorty?" Jane asked.

"What's wrong with girlfriend?" Lisbon asked.

"It's not funny when I say it," Jane said. "I thought those turns are better than "my ho".

"You are just trying to make me hit you, aren't you?" Lisbon asked.

"I was hoping if I distracted you that you would forget you have to go to work," Jane said.

"I have to go," Lisbon said. "Are you going to come?"

"I'm good here," Jane said. Lisbon finished dressing, walked over and leaned down and kissed Jane on the lips.

"I'm heading out then," Lisbon said. "I'll see you in a couple of hours. I'll call you when it is over."

"Bring me some food when you come back," Jane said.

"Never going to happen," Lisbon said as she headed out of the room.

After Lisbon left, Jane laid in bed for a little while thinking before he decided he was going to go to the rally after all. He had been having bad dreams about Red John going after Lisbon and knowing she was hanging out a place with so much potential danger made him really uneasy. He decided that even though he didn't want to work, he wanted to be as near her as possible to make sure nothing happened.

When he got to the rally, he went to a local a restaurant not far from where Lisbon's team was located so he could keep an eye on them from a distance.

Halfway through the rally, someone discovered a dead body and Lisbon's team was put in charge of handling the investigation into what happened. Once Lisbon saw the body, she immediately decided to call Jane to see if he wanted to help with the case since it was no longer just crowd control and he could assist the team.

"Jane," Lisbon said when he answered.

"You are going to have to speak up Lisbon," Jane said. "It is a little loud here."

"You close to us?" Lisbon asked. She was a little shocked to find out he was near since she thought he would still be lying in bed sleeping.

"Well, that depends," Jane asked. "Are you still on crowd patrol?"

"No," Lisbon said. "We got a homicide now."

"Then I'm close," Jane said as he hung up the phone to head over to her location.

While he was making his way over to the crime scene, Jane noticed a suspicious man standing in a trenchcoat who seemed to be acting really nervous. Something about the guy made Jane feel a little weird.

"Where were you at?" Lisbon asked Jane when he walked up towards her.

"At a local restaurant," Jane said.

"Stalking me?" Lisbon asked with a smirk.

"I wanted to make sure you were safe," Jane said. "Most courts of law would not consider that stalking. And I had to prove you wrong. You said most of these things are usually boring, but bam! Dead guy. Not so boring after all."

"It may not even be related to the rally for all we know," Lisbon said. Jane went on to explain to her about the the man he saw and how he thought this dead body must just be a decoy to divert attention so someone can go after the mayor. Lisbon listened to him and sent Cho and Grace over to go and investigate the man.

"We got to make sure we get this right," Lisbon said to Jane. "The new boss starts today."

"Now we know why you were forced to work this rally then," Jane said. "The new guy probably volunteered you to make himself look like a team player. Probably a good day to not let the mayor die."

"When you meet him, don't be you," Lisbon said.

"What does that mean?" Jane asked.

"Well, first of all, nothing saying things like you just said," Lisbon said. "Second, don't pick him apart and point out every single one of his flaws."

"Don't worry," Jane said. "I'll be saving that for a better time. No need to waste all that good stuff until he annoys me for the first time."

"Which will probably be today," Lisbon said.

"That is true," Jane said.

* * *

After the team finished gathering up evidence at the crime scene, they head back to the CBI. While the team was sitting around the office discussing the case and Tibbs, the suspicious man Jane had come across, the team's new boss, Luther Wainwright, walked in and introduced himself. He immediately started talking about the case and guessed the murder victim was probably a photographer. His keen insight actually kinda impressed Jane.

After Wainwright sent the team out to investigate, Lisbon sat down next to Jane on his couch to talk to him once again about him behaving around the new boss.

"I need you to behave," Lisbon said. "He is going to try to be by the book. They all start off the same."

"Once again, you have no need to worry," Jane said. "I will be as well-behaved as a 16 year old boy left alone with his girlfriend."

"That is not reassuring at all," Lisbon said.

"No," Jane said. "But it means for a fun time, though."

"Jane," Lisbon pleaded.

"Look, I will try not to get you fired," Jane said. "Actually, I'm going to head with Cho to watch Tibbs."

"Why?" Lisbon asked as Jane got up off the couch.

"I don't want to sit around all day and be bored with him watching me," Jane said. "This way Wainwright will think I actually do some work around here. Don't worry. I'm not cheating on you with Cho. I still like you better."

"Be safe," Lisbon said as Jane walked away.

* * *

A couple of hours later, Lisbon got a call from Cho stating Jane had left the stakeout car to go talk to Tibbs directly. She tried to call Jane to get him out of there, but he ignored her calls to keep playing along with his charade. She hung up her phone and rolled her eyes knowing she will have to yell at him later at home.

After meeting with Tibbs, Jane determined he was a psychopath who was ready to kill. It was late so he headed to Lisbon's house to tell her his findings.

"Tibbs is a murderer," Jane said as he opened up the front door to find Lisbon sitting on her couch." Before Lisbon listened to more, she got up and shoved Jane's chest.

"Ow!" Jane said. "What's that for?"

"What were you thinking going to talk to Tibbs by yourself?" Lisbon asked. "If you really think he is a murderer, you could have set him off and he could have hurt you."

"I wasn't trying to set him off," Jane said. "I was playing buddy-buddy to him. Trying to get to know him."

"If he is crazy like you say then you don't know what could set him off," Lisbon said. "You could say go Longhorns and he is an Aggies fan and he blows your head off."

"Why are you so upset about this?" Jane asked. "I didn't do anything that will make Wainwright mad and Cho was watching the whole time."

"All I'm saying is that you can't be all over-protective of me, but then go and put yourself in harm's way," Lisbon said. "Our relationship has to be a two-way street. Now, I will agree to talk to Wainwright tomorrow about Tibbs possibly being a murderer, but that doesn't mean I am not still mad at you." Jane put a pouting look on his face.

"I'm sowwy," Jane said.

"Yeah, that's not going to work," Lisbon said.

"Sex?" Jane asked.

"Nope," Lisbon said.

"Back massage?" Jane asked.

"Getting warmer," Lisbon said.

"A sexy back massage?" Jane asked.

"That does sound good," Lisbon said.

"Good because I really need my back rubbed," Jane said with a smile.

"You're a jerk," Lisbon said shoving him again.

"You know I am joking," Jane said as he pulled Lisbon into a hug. "And I am sorry I upset you." Jane rubbed his hands up and down Lisbon's back.

"It's okay," Lisbon said. "And that rubbing doesn't count as my back massage."

"It better not," Jane said. "I was expecting you to be naked."

"Likewise," Lisbon said.

* * *

The next morning Jane and Lisbon met with Wainwright to convince him that Tibbs is a murderer. Jane tried to convince him to set up a scam to catch Tibbs in the act. Wainwright reluctantly agreed to let them investigate and have the Jane and Lisbon 24 hours to prove Tibbs is a murderer.

After Grace is able to convince Tibbs estranged wife to let them in their home, Lisbon and Jane head over to Tibbs' place to see what they can find. When they entered the home, they found a mess.

"Lacks a woman's touch," Jane said as they entered and started to look around.

"Says the guy who practically lives in an attic," Lisbon said.

"You can come clean it up for me at any time," Jane said with a smirk.

"I'm not your maid or your wife!" Lisbon shot back.

"Well, not with that attitude," Jane said as he looked through some papers. Lisbon wasn't quite sure what to make of that comment.

"Got something," Lisbon said as she opened a closet to discover tons of guns.

"Yeah, that's normal," Jane said sarcastically.

"This guy is going to lose it at any time," Jane said.

"I have a crazy idea," Jane said.

"Do I even want to know?" Lisbon asked.

"Look, Tibbs is going to go crazy," Jane said. "That's a given. What I am thinking is that we replace his bullets with blanks so when he finally does go berserk, he can't really harm anyone. The problem is that I know Wainwright will never approve of this plan."

"You want to go behind his back," Lisbon said.

"Look, I'll totally take the blame if it goes south and doesn't go well," Jane said.

"No," Lisbon said. "We're partners. We're in this together. If I am going to let you do it, I need to be involved to make sure it is done right."

"I'm starting to rub off on you," Jane said. He paused for a moment. "That came across a little dirtier than I intended."

"Either way is true," Lisbon said with a wink.

"Who's the perv now?" Jane asked.

"Still you," Lisbon said.

"Guys can't win," Jane said.

* * *

Later, after Grace almost shoots Tibbs at the diner, Wainwright yelled at Jane and Lisbon about how the case was being handled and kicked Jane off of the case. Wainwright left with Rigsby and Cho to go and arrest Tibbs on a weapons charge. Jane and Lisbon stayed behind in his office.

"I wonder if our new boss is in over his head," Lisbon said.

"Really?" Jane said. "I don't."

"Tibbs could kill him," Lisbon said.

"Or he could save Tibbs," Jane said, mocking Wainwright.

"You know this will freak Tibbs out," Lisbon said.

"I know," Jane said. "Wainwright is totally going to send Tibbs over the edge when he reveals the cops have been watching him. So he is doing exactly what I wanted him to do. At least no one should get hurt because of blanks. This way Wainwright is going learn we can't always play by the book to catch murderers. Sometimes it's not the best way to get bad guys off of the street. He will need to learn to take my ideas seriously. You're not starting to have doubts about not telling Wainwright about the blanks, are you?"

"Not if we are right and Tibbs is bad guy," Lisbon said. "Wainwright will look good for catching him on his very first case so he may be peeved, but it will make him look good so he will get over it. If we are wrong and he looks like an idiot, we are totally screwed."

"Faith, Lisbon," Jane said. "Got to have some faith."

* * *

Tibbs did exactly what Jane had predicted and went off his rocker when he found out the CBI had been watching him and he was able to escape being taking into police custody. The team ended up heading over to the mayor's party since Jane had seen it circled on Tibbs' calendar. Tibbs ended up pulling a gun on Jane. He tried to talk Tibbs into getting help knowing he would be in far less trouble if he did, but instead Tibbs tried to shoot Jane and many members of the crowd. Fortunately, the blanks he and Lisbon had put in the gun saved everyone's lives.

After the case was over and they finished interviewing everyone, Lisbon headed back to the office to meet with Jane. As she walked up, she saw Wainwright having a conversation with him. Before she could hear what they were talking about, Wainwright walked away.

"Everything alright? Lisbon asked Jane.

"Yeah," Jane said. "I like our new boss. I think we would work well together. I do have a question for you, though."

"What?" Jane asked.

"Do you think I am an antisocial personality?" Jane asked.

"Sure," Lisbon said. "Who isn't?"

"Wainwright thinks I am clinical psychopath," Jane said.

"He said that to you?" Lisbon asked.

"Yep," Jane said.

"And you think everything is alright?" Lisbon said. "That's not good."

"He has only known me for two days, Lisbon," Jane said. "Those tests he loves so much prove absolutely nothing about a person. I could manipulate those tests to make anyone look crazy. Even you."

"I'm not sure if I was just complimented or insulted," Lisbon said.

"It was a compliment," Jane said. "Most people would not picture you as a homicidal maniac."

"I guess that means I have succeeded in life," Lisbon said.

"They didn't call you Saint Teresa for nothing," Jane said. "Now let's head home. If we stay too long Wainwright might come back and try to convince me that I need psychological help. I will say, though, you were right about him. The press is making him sound wonderful for catching Tibbs so he doesn't seem to really mind we tricked him."

"Politics," Lisbon said. "As long as you make the boss look good, they don't care how you do your job."

"And then they take all of the credit," Jane said. "You should one day tell the press how you are the one who really does it all."

"I don't need the credit," Lisbon said. "Knowing I caught a bad guy is good enough for me. That's what helps me sleep fine at night. Not the glory."

"I thought I was what helped you sleep well at night," Jane said.

"You certainly do wear me out," Lisbon said with a smile. "And you are really cuddly."

"When we end up telling the team about us, don't tell them that part," Jane said as they started to head out. "It would ruin my street cred."

"Street cred?" Lisbon said. "You wear a vest."

"You don't like my vests?" Jane asked.

"I love your vests," Lisbon said. "They just don't scream tough guy."

"Do they scream psychopath?" Jane asked.

"That's bow ties," Lisbon said with a laugh as they got into the elevator to head out.

* * *

 **For this episode, I always did wonder why Jane was so close to the rally. It was never explained and I really wanted to know what the writers were thinking.**


End file.
